Activist strives to inspire Uptown's black youth

The Rev. O. Leon Wood Jr., the son of cotton pickers who has gazed into the eyes of civil rights leaders, is committed to “serious intervention” to help make young African American males more successful in Uptown Long Beach schools.

Wood, 74, who founded the North Long Beach Community Prayer Center in Uptown, isn't faint of heart when it comes to community activism.

As a young man, he'd attend church gatherings throughout the region, where he crossed paths with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, both of whom proved inspirational.

“They were approachable,” said Wood, who shook both of their hands after sermons in the 1960s.

Wood, now retired, is today focused on providing educational opportunities for African American male teens and holds out his Claremont-Long Beach Math Collaborative, Long Beach Freedom School and Success in Challenges, as innovative platforms.

In the mid-2000s, he decided to return to school at Claremont Graduate University and complete his doctorate in education.

Simultaneously, he became the director of the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program at the university and was named as an interim Protestant chaplain at the school. McNair, the second African American to travel into space, died on Jan. 28, 1986, in the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

Wood's dissertation at Claremont led to the formation of his “math collaborative,” which took 13-year-old African American males from local middle schools and gave them a place to stay in dormitories for four weeks on Claremont's campus. They were given an intensive program of math lessons by professors, field trips to the San Gabriel Mountains, trips to movies at local theaters and a visit to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

“Their time was not wasted,” Wood said.

Doris Robinson, a former principal of Bryant Elementary School, has taken over the program, which since has been cut to a one-week stay in Claremont for the original students who began the program in 2010.

The program has been restructured and now is focused on helping the original 34 students who entered the program, which offers tutoring two hours a day, four days a week, at Jordan High. They are all in grades 10 or 11, she said.

“I monitor their grades so that they don't fall behind,” Robinson said.

The program also invites famous athletes to come speak to inspire the students, she said.

Last week, for instance, former NFL defensive back Chris Hale, who played in two Super Bowls, spoke to the youngsters. Others have included former football stars Bob Grant, who broke color barriers in the 1960s, and Reggie Berry. Track star Ron Brown, who won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics, also has visited Jordan.

Wood also formed Success in Challenges, which offers various year-round tutoring and mentoring programs in addition to an annual six-week summer reading program called the Long Beach Freedom School.

Aspiring teachers from Cal State Long Beach and other universities are tapped for a one-week literacy training program at “Roots” author Alex Haley's old plantation in Clinton, Tenn.

Wood's Freedom School is the longest surviving one in California at more than a decade old.